Almost a week has passed since we rang in 2012, and, if you’re like me, you’ve probably already broken most of your resolutions. Blame it on the cupcakes at your neighbor’s birthday party, or the below freezing temperatures outside keeping you from your run, but at the end of the day, we have no one to blame but ourselves. Why? Because by making new year’s resolutions, many of us moms are adding additional pressures to our already stress-filled lives, rather than finding ways to alleviate some of the stress and establish equilibrium. We tell ourselves we’ll exercise more, we’ll eat better, we’ll work harder, we’ll make more friends, we’ll start a new hobby, we’ll be a better wife, a better mother, a better daughter, a better sister….and so the list goes on and the pressures build up, almost certainly dooming us to failure.

In an effort to put an end to this cycle of perpetual stress and mounting expectations, I propose a new resolution for all of us new moms: this year, we will all find 15 minutes a day for ourselves. These 15 minutes can be first thing in the morning, during a child’s nap, late at night before bed,… whenever fits into our schedules. But, for 15 minutes every day, we will take a step back and do something for ourselves, without feeling the weight of expectations or demands of others. Yes, we are moms, we are wives, we are daughters and sisters and friends, but we also are individuals. It is my firm belief that in finding a few extra minutes for ourselves every day, we’ll feel better able to tackle the tasks before us and maybe, just maybe, next year we’ll keep another resolution for longer than one week.

About Lauren

Lauren Gindes is the founder of mommylearningcurve.com, a website community for first-time moms climbing the steep learning curve of motherhood. She lives in Raleigh, North Carolina with her son, Nate and husband, Jonathan.